Making Books Sing’s 13 Days of Giving campaign is out, into the internets, possibly in a 9x14 envelope in your mail box, waiting for you when you get home. There’s a bookmark inside, so even if you don't read solicitation letters, take out the bookmark and admire it for a few minutes.
Also, if you are not following our campaign on Twitter and Facebook, you should be. It’s kind of great and amusing. So far, I’ve been told to not use a particular #hashtag because its creators don’t want it used to discuss fundraising and ticket sales. But programming was fine to discuss with their #exclusivehashtag.
I complied, because I am a nice Southern girl at heart; but just so all of you know, programs don’t exist without fundraising and visa versa. I’m a firm believer that we should TALK about fundraising to the point of exhaustion in the non-profit world. Regulating programming and fundraising to different rooms is not going to get your program off of the ground.
At the same time, I understand how uncomfortable fundraising makes people, especially in “this economic climate” ('fess up, how many of you have put that phrase into your grant proposals at some point in the last 3 years?).
I believe fundraising should be a conversation. Whether the online portion of the campaign works or not (SO many articles about how it does or doesn’t out there), it will be good to get Making Books Sing’s programming out into the different #hashtags of the universe. Or at least the ones that will accept my attempt to raise a few bucks. (Shout out to #nptech—really great hashtag for non-profits).
A fall appeal is a lot of work with not the greatest return (Unless you are Lincoln Center or Roundabout and have 50,000 patrons), but it’s absolutely one of my favorite things to do because it allows me to grapple with what people care about and want.
As I stuffed each envelope with care, the realization hit me that over half the recipients will probably spend less than 10 seconds with my labor of love. And that’s okay. We are all busy people. However, the season of giving is upon us, and it is time for us to take a minute and figure out what we care about and why. Causes are like people. If you don’t let them know you want them around, they’ll eventually go away. So whatever you support, let them know this holiday season. Hopefully, Making Books Sing is on your list.
And keep tweeting with me. Let’s keep the conversation going (You rock, @anikanonirose).
